Earworm Issues
by Midnathething
Summary: Frisk has a song stuck in their head and Chara is not amused. Fortunately, their Cool Friend Papyrus is willing to help them out.


**Author's Note: Originally, this just started as Chara being annoyed because Frisk had a song stuck in their head. I started writing and the idea grew into this fic, so enjoy!**

 **I don't own Undertale because I'm not Toby Fox. If I was I would be much fuzzier...**

 **-Midnathething**

Idly, Frisk scribbled a picture in their notebook, humming a catchy tune they'd heard on the radio. The song was firmly stuck in their head.

Chara groaned loudly in Frisk's mind, briefly distracting the child from their picture. _"What is it, Chara?"_ They set down their pencil.

Frisk could feel the glare directed at them from their mind. _"You've been humming the same song for_ _ **eight hours**_ _."_

 _"What's wrong with that? It's really catchy."_ Frisk asked with a frown. Did Chara not like Pop?

The spirit - Was Chara a spirit? If the two of them were being completely honest neither of them were entirely sure _what_ Chara was - sighed. _"No I don't hate Pop, Frisk. But anything gets annoying if you hear it again and again for eight hours."_

Considering Chara's point, Frisk chewed thoughtfully on the end of their pencil. Frisk could understand that some people might find different things annoying. They liked the little white dog that Papyrus wanted to capture and... And... Papyrus and Frisk weren't sure what they would do one the skeleton caught the dog, but Papyrus had mentioned the possibility of taking it to an animal shelter and hoping it found a nice home with some humans. Their thoughts began to drift from this point.

Chara suddenly screamed, making Frisk jump with a yelp. _"What? What's wrong, Chara?"_

 _"Your doing it again!"_

Frisk gave a quiet 'oh' as they realized that their thoughts had drifted back to the song. _"Sorry, Chara. I didn't notice... I guess it's stuck in my head."_

There was a quiet huff. _"Well get it unstuck then! I refuse to spend the rest of my existence stuck in your head hearing the same stupid song_ _ **over and over**_ _."_

Chara's presence retreated to the back of Frisk's mind, where it normally lurked, and the child sighed. "How do I just get something 'unstuck' from my head?"

A light knock sounded from the child's door and Frisk turned, their eyebrows furrowing. Was it dinner time already? "Yeah, Mom?" They called, confusion coloring their tone.

"Is everything alright in there?" Toriel asked from the other side of the door, "I heard you shout."

Frisk winced, feeling a spark of quilt. "Yeah, sorry Mom. It's just..." The child trailed off, wondering how to explain their problem. They couldn't just say, 'Oh, well the ghost of your dead human child, the first one, is in my head and doesn't like the song stuck there,' that would be weird. "There's this song stuck in my head and it's kind of distracting."

Toriel had cracked open the door and was now peaking into Frisk's room. Feeling pleased with themselves Frisk gave what they hoped was an encouraging smile. They'd even technically told the truth; the song was stuck in their head and Chara's reactions to the song were distracting.

The goat-like monster nodded in understanding. "I see."

Suddenly, Frisk straightened in their seat, an idea striking them. "Could you help me get it out of my head, Mom?"

"Well, I suppose it's worth a shot." Toriel answered with a smile.

Beaming, Frisk jumped up from their desk and followed Toriel downstairs. _"Well, that works I guess."_ Chara's voice stated suddenly, startling the burnett.

 _"Are you trying to make me fall down the stairs?"_ Frisk demanded, grabbing the rail to steady them-self. _"That's probably the eighth time you've startled me on the stairs."_

Chara snickered. _"It's your own fault for not paying more attention."_ They paused. _"Besides, it's not like Mom would let you fall. Or any other monsters for that matter..."_

 _"It'd still be embarrassing!"_ Frisk countered with an internal scowl. _"Sans would probably make a pun too."_

Chara's mood suddenly darkened and Frisk frowned. _"I still can't figure out what you've got against him."_

"Frisk?" Toriel's voice asked, snapping them from their thoughts.

Frisk shot the monster an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I just, you know..." They waved their hand vaguely, trailing off.

Toriel smiled, although Frisk was certain that they saw a flash of concern in the monster's eyes. "You were lost in thought again, I know." She suddenly clapped her hands together. "So, shall we invite Papyrus over? I'm sure he'd be glad to see you."

 _"If anyone's capable of distracting someone from a stupid, catchy song, it's him."_ Chara sighed.

They smiled. "That'd be awesome, Mom!"

. . .

Papyrus, impressively enough, didn't even take ten minutes to reach Toriel's house after the goat-like monster called him. Frisk wondered if the skeleton had ran or broken several traffic laws and decided not to ask. As Chara had pointed out, one possibility was weird and the other was highly illegal.

The skeleton had, of course, arrived with shouting and spaghetti. Toriel hadn't even been able to frown disapprovingly about the shouting for more than a minute, which Frisk knew was a sign that she hadn't been upset in the first place. The three of them were now sitting in the kitchen, having some spaghetti upon Papyrus' insistence.

 _"You know, his cooking really has improved."_ Chara idly noted. _"You could barely force yourself to eat it before, and even then you couldn't do it without making faces."_

Frisk hummed in agreement, shooting Papyrus as smile as they took another bite of the spaghetti. _"I think it's all those cooking shows he's started watching. Even the anime are helpful... Somehow."_ The skeleton occasionally hung out with Alphys and Undyne, so it really wasn't a surprise that he'd seen anime that involved cooking.

The feeling of Chara nodding was projected into Frisk's mind.

"So, my Cool Friends, what is the Friend Emergency that I was contacted about?" The capitals were audible in the skeleton's voice.

The human rose and eyebrow at Toriel, mouthing 'Friend Emergency' with a confused blink. She responded with a slight shrug and a small smile, which Frisk returned.

Toriel smiled at the skeleton. "Well, while I'm not sure emergency is the right word, we do appreciate your help, Papyrus. Frisk has gotten a song stuck in their head and can't get it out."

Gasping, Papyrus stood abruptly, almost knocking his chair to the floor. Instead of the furniture loudly clattering to the ground like Frisk had expected it was caught in a gentle orange glow and set upright. The tall skeleton didn't even seem to notice this, instead focusing intently on Frisk. Frisk found themselves remembering once again that Papyrus was, in Undyne's words, "really freaking strong."

Both Frisk and Chara agreed that they were grateful that Papyrus was too nice to hurt anybody.

"Human," The skeleton shouted, "I think I have a solution to your song problem! We shall play one of the human video games inspired by music!"

Frisk suppressed a wince, thinking of the various times they had tried playing music games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Due to an unfortunate lack in sense of rhythm, they had never been very good at those games. Chara was, on the other hand, quite exited. They had never had the chance to play music games - or video games in general - so they thought the experience could be fun. They also had a much better sense of rhythm than Frisk, so they suspected that they would do better than the child they shared a body with.

The biggest struggle they encountered turned out to be setting up the game, due to the need to untangle wires and cords from the various 'instruments.' At one point, a fluffy white dog snuck in and tried to steal the microphone, but that was put to a stop with a swift, intimidating glare from and Toriel had chased away the dog while Frisk finished setting up the game.

 _"Do you want to play drums, guitar, or sing?"_ Frisk asked the other child while they waited for the goat monster and skeleton to return.

Chara considered the question. _"I've had enough of hitting things from_ _ **then**_ _, and I can't really carry a tune... So, uh, guitar?"_

 _"Are you sure?"_ Frisk recalled the times they'd played the game them-self. They'd had a bad time trying to play the guitar.

 _"Yeah, Frisk!"_

The burnett carefully picked up the guitar, slinging the strap attached to the instrument over their shoulders and behind their back as instructed on the box. They were now holding the instrument, with it ready for Chara. Frisk felt a warm surge of determination, smiled, and passed control of their body to the other human.

Papyrus glanced between the microphone and the drums before sitting in front of the drums, picking the drumsticks up with a confident grin. Toriel smiled and chose the setting that would start the game for two players.

"If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen."

Chara beamed. _"Mom's making pie!"_ The child stared at the screen for a few seconds. _"Erm, how do I control this, Frisk?"_

 _"The flat thing your right hand's over, moving it down moves the courser down and moving it up moves the courser up. How do you know Mom's making pie?"_

Chara nodded, carefully testing the controls. When the child found a song they liked they selected it. Papyrus 'Nyeh'ed in approval. _"It's the only thing she makes that takes this long to cook. You hadn't noticed?"_

Chara got the impression of Frisk shrugging, _"The only time I've had it so far was after I fell into the Underground. It must have already been baking."_

The song started and Chara began to tune out Frisk's commentary, focusing on pressing the buttons shown on the screen and moving the 'strings' of the guitar.

A few songs later Chara paused. _"Frisk, do you want to play?"_

 _"I guess, but I'd rather not play the guitar. Could I try the microphone?"_ Frisk answered after considering the question.

Chara blinked. _"You want to try singing? Sure, I don't think I've ever heard you sing..."_ They trailed off, searching their memory.

When nothing came to mind the child shrugged and passed control of the body back to Frisk. _"Thanks, Chara!"_

Frisk scrolled through the menu and found a song that Chara and Papyrus hadn't already played that they liked. "Do you mind if I try the microphone for this song instead, Papyrus?"

The skeleton shook his head, smiling. "I do not mind, human. Although, I do not think I have ever heard you sing..."

Laughing, Frisk selected the song and changed the settings so that they could sing instead of suffering with the guitar. They left the guitar hanging loosely from the shoulders and grabbed the microphone. The first line of the song, titled "How Did You Love" by some band called Shinedown, began and Frisk sang along, keeping time with the beats of Papyrus' drumming.

. . .

The song drew to a close and Frisk smiled. "That was fun!"

Papyrus stared, jaw hanging open in a manner comically similar to a shocked cartoon character. "Human, you did not tell me you could sing!"

 _"He's right, you've never mentioned the talent."_ Chara sounded as surprised as Papyrus looked. _"The closest you've ever come to singing before was that time you were humming with Shyren. You have no excuse for not singing more."_

The child laughed. "You never asked about it." The answer was directed at both Chara and Papyrus. "That game was fun, should we try a different song?"

The skeleton shook off his shock and grinned. "Nyeh heh heh, that sounds like a wonderful idea, Frisk!"

There was a warm feeling from the back of their mind that signaled Chara's content agreement.

. . .

A few hours later Papyrus had to leave, mentioning that Sans might be too lazy to get up and eat dinner if he wasn't told to.

Frisk had nodded and thanked Papyrus for visiting, ignoring Chara's mutters about letting a certain skeleton starve (could skeletons even starve?). After promising that they could put the game away on their own the skeleton had grinned, laughed, and left.

 _"Why was he here in the first place?"_ Frisk briefly wondered. They had had so much fun that they honestly couldn't remember and it was bothering them.

 _"There was- You had- Never mind, it'd just happen again if I told you."_ Chara eventually answered, distress coloring their thoughts.

Frisk just laughed. Chara worried about the weirdest things.

 **The named song I chose was 'How Did You Love' because it really has Undertale vibes for me, particularly in the verses "You can be an angel of mercy or give in to hate/You can try to fight it just like every other killer's mistake/How do justify, I'm mystified by the ways of your heart." The fic also implies that Frisk and Chara went** _ **at least**_ **most of the way through a genocide run, but since they're living happily like normal children assume they stopped at the Sans fight because Chara couldn't beat the skeleton.**


End file.
